Wednesday, December 17, 2014

With cries of “Second Amendment remedies” to “government tyranny”
ringing in their ears, a crowd of several hundred people gathered near
the state Capitol in Olympia, Wash., on Saturday, to voice their disapproval of Initiative 594, the new state law requiring background checks on most gun sales.

The "I-594 Violation Station"

Most people in the gathering carried firearms of one kind or another,
and a number of them openly exchanged weapons as a way to make a
statement supporting the “We Will Not Comply” rally. There was even a table marked “I-594 Violation Station,” where attendees could openly swap or sell firearms.

The focus of the event, though, was the parade of speakers who
encouraged the audience to defy the new law on the grounds that it
violated the Constitution. Many of them were longstanding antigovernment
figures, including former Arizona sheriff Richard Mack, whose fame on
the radical right has much to do with his own challenge of federal gun
laws and “III Percent” movement provocateur Mike Vanderboegh.

Accordingly, many of them referenced violent action in defense of
their gun rights as the ultimate response to what they see as tyranny.

“Make no mistake: If we do not stand up, America, our children and
our grandchildren will take back liberty at the price of blood!” intoned
Gavin Seim, the Ephrata, Wa.-based “liberty speaker” and chief
organizer of the event.

Mike Vanderdoegh

Vanderboegh was even more explicit: “When democracy turns to tyranny,
the armed citizenry still gets to vote!” he told the crowd, to loud
cheers. “So be careful what you wish for. You may get it.”
Vanderboegh blamed the passage of I-594 last month, with nearly 60
percent of the vote, on internecine bickering between gun rights
organizations, notably the National Rifle Association and the
Bellevue-based Second Amendment Foundation. He warned the groups that
they needed to work together now to prevent the law from being fully
enacted.

“[W]e are here today to remind them, and to remind the enemies of
liberty in this state, that if they fail, there are always Second
Amendment remedies,” he said. “And like that determined minority of
colonists, that original three percent who fought the forces of the
greatest empire on the planet to a standstill, we will not be
intimidated, we will not compromise, we will not back down, and we will
be heard, one way or the other!”

Even more chilling were the demands that were quietly read by an Oath
Keepers representative from Washington, Scott Bannister, who demanded
that current office holders in the state step down from their positions,
or face violent consequences.

“We the people demand that our current government, and their many
crimes of treason against the Constitution, breaking the oath they swore
to uphold … we are asking them to step back and surrender their
position or office they hold, or be arrested by the sheriff of their
local state,” he read from a prepared statement. “By their failure to
uphold their oath that they swore, they are committing treason and high
crimes against our country, and I don’t think any of us want to stand
for that. These tyrannical acts and criminal acts toward us American
people are out of control.”

Bannister explained further: “Every once in awhile, the tree of
liberty needs to be refreshed, and the blood of tyrants needs to flow.
If they don’t do it quietly, and resign, sad to say it, maybe that’s
what’s gonna happen, I hope not. But we will stand our ground, and no
comply.”

Bannister also indulged in a moment of unintended irony when he told
the crowd: “I wish more people would realize what’s going on with our
country. Because we are all told so many lies, and so many people
believe it. It’s really sad that we’ve all been brainwashed.”

Most of the speakers, including state Rep. Elizabeth Scott, who
declared “Molon Labe!” (Come and Take Them) to the idea of gun
registration, argued that both the Second Amendment, as well as
provisions in the state constitution, prohibited such laws as I-594.
Several, including Seim, argued that these constitutions prohibited any
regulations of any weapons whatsoever.

“We need to draw the line,” Seim said. “Read my lips: The people
should be armed equal to government! Because when the people are armed,
there is liberty, and when there is liberty, there is safety, and there
is security. We must stop trading away our children’s birthright for
false promises of security and trade for liberty, because that, my
friends, is not liberty, and that’s why we stand here today.”

Richard Mack argued along similar lines. “I don’t care if it’s state
level, county level, whatever—the only way a background check before you
can get a gun is lawful is if you voluntarily do it,” he told the
crowd. “If you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to. Because you’re
not a criminal, you’re an American, and you don’t have to go through
that. Because your government has no authority, no right, no power, no
business ever saying to you, ‘Unless you submit and unless you subject
yourself to my background check, you can’t have your Second Amendment.’

“That’s not the way our government works. We don’t need your
permission! We don’t need your permission to be here, or to exercise our
Second Amendment rights, but you need our permission to exist. You got
it all backwards!” he said. “And we will not comply, we will not disarm,
we will not be slaves, and we will not subject ourselves to you, in any
way!”

Seim demonstrated how deeply he embraced this idea at the end of the
four-hour-long program by burning his state concealed-carry permit,
claiming that the government didn’t have the power to control his gun
rights.

“You do not need a permit to exercise your rights,” he said. “If you,
my friends, want a tank in your front yard, then buy one, and I for one
may want to live next door, because your house will be the safest on
the block.

“I was on a radio interview a little while ago, as we were planning
this rally,” he continued. “He suggested that I was too radical. And he
said, ‘If you stood up before all those people and said you ought to be
able to own bazookas, they would not stand with you.’ And I said, ‘Well,
challenge accepted,’ or something along those lines. So I say, if you
want to own a bazooka, you can own a bazooka! Although an AR-15 might
actually be a more effective weapon.”

The crowd cheered loudly, and a number of them came up to toss their concealed-carry permits into the fire as well.

Sara Robinson has worked as an editor or columnist for several national magazines, on beats as varied as sports, travel, and the Olympics; and has contributed to over 80 computer games for EA, Lucasfilm, Disney, and many other companies. A native of California's High Sierra, she spent 20 years in Silicon Valley before moving to Vancouver, BC in 2004. She currently is pursuing an MS in Futures Studies at the University of Houston. You can reach her at srobinson@enginesofmischief.com.